A great attitude combined with hard and smart training will bring you great results. Add in high test fuel and your preparing yourself for explosive results. If you want to be a peak performer and become a World Class Achiever, you’re going to need energy and that extra energy is going to come from the fuel you put in your gas tank. When it comes to Peak Performance in the Martial Arts and in life, Champions look at food as fuel for excellence…on and off the mats. What you eat or drink as well as the amount you take in, has a tremendous influence on your energy level and your recovery. If you owned a thoroughbred race horse that you were preparing for the Kentucky Derby or any other World Class competition, chances are good you’d be feeding it the right fuel. You certainly wouldn’t be feeding it junk food or taking it to the Mc Donald’s drive thru. Think of yourself as a World Class thoroughbred and put the right gas in your tank. To a Champion…food is fuel for excellence on and off the mats.
As we end our series on Habits of Excellence, we focus on Minimum vs. Maximum. This is a theory of developing the habit of giving your maximum effort & always pushing to exceed your previous best performances. When you push yourself to your current maximum and then strive for 10% improvement, you constantly raise the bar on your personal best. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you get in the habit of giving a minimal effort and accept less than your best, this can also become your habit. If you’re not careful, before you know it, your minimum will become your maximum. I see this often with students who fail to practice and then make excuses rather than accept responsibility.
Never allow your minimums to become your maximums. If you begin to accept less than your best, on the mat or off, it will soon become habit. Instead of developing “Habits of Excellence” you’ll be developing “Habits of Mediocrity.” It’s been said that the way you do anything, is often the way you do everything. Look at the habits you develop and practice in your Martial Arts, as habits you are developing for improving your entire life. The next time you stretch, go a little further. The next time you spar, get busier and try to take your game to a higher level. The next time you practice your Hyung, do it at performance level and you will soon find yourself reaching our personal best. It is not necessarily about more but less done better!
Look at everything you do, on and off the mat, think about how you can do it better. In the dojang…what can you do to pick up the pace to improve your skills and conditioning? At work…can you arrive a little earlier, stay a little later and increase your productivity?
Habits we Train are Habits we Gain!
Mushin is the concept of going from thought to acting without conscious thought. It is actually acting with one mind. It is refined memory to the point of subconscious action. For example, we are all very fortunate that we do not have to consciously remember to breath, ask our heart to beat, and or do the many other automatic tasks that keep us alive daily. Each one of these processes is taking place because it has been conditioned over time to happen automatically. The warrior understands to reach a higher level of performance, they must do it through practice. The goal is to change your state of consciousness to one mind. That is to become one with whatever you are doing at that moment in time. It is the essence of heightened awareness. It is what all warriors train for. Mushin leads to creativity or what is called “Ryu Pa” in Korean. For creativity to happen, the warrior must let go and let flow so to speak. Much like moving from initial memory to refined memory, the process is one that takes time. This is not to say that an artist may not be inspired and have a sudden burst of creativity. It is to say however that the process is most often rooted in years of focused practice.
“Most teachers’ advise is think, think, and think. The Zen masters advice is stop thinking.” Author Unknown.
You often hear in class: “Last set – Best Set!” Or “Last Round – Best Round!” Both used to anchor the mind set and the Habit of Finishing Strong. Experts in Peak Performance remind us that high levels of success and achievement in any endeavor is 20% mechanics and 80% psychological. Simply meaning that once you’ve mastered the fundamental skills you need to succeed, you’ve got to invest daily in psyching yourself up to take massive action. That’s where the Habit of Finishing Strong comes in. Making sure that you end each day in a Kick Butt way. Think opposites, imagine being in the habit of finishing weak.
Every day you finished your day in a lazy, low or no results way. Aiming for just Okay and accepting mediocrity from yourself by performing way below your true potential. Would that excite you? Would that be the way to bring excellence into your life? NOT! By conditioning yourself with the Habit of Finishing Strong to each day, week, month and year…you add one more excellent habit to your life. As the end of the year grows closer…it’s a great habit to visit and an excellent mind set to apply to the remaining days and weeks of 2016.
Good luck and Finish Strong!